Malware: a future framework for device, network and service management

The ETSI's Zero touch network and Service Management (ZSM) framework is a prominent initiative to tame the envisioned complexity in operating and managing 5G and beyond networks. To this end, the ZSM framework promotes the shift toward full Automation of Network and Service Management and Operation (ANSMO) by leveraging the flexibility of SDN/NFV technologies along with Artificial Intelligence, combined with the portability and reusability of model-driven, open interfaces. Besides its benefits, each leveraged enabler will bring its own security threats, which should be carefully tackled to make the ANSMO vision a reality. This paper introduces the ZSM's potential attack surface and recommends possible mitigation measures along with some research directions to safeguard ZSM system security.

Closed loops are key enablers for automation that have been successfully used in many industries for long, and more recently for computing and networking applications. The Zero-touch network and service management (ZSM) framework introduced standardized components that allow the creation, execution, and governance of multiple closed loops, enabling zero-touch management of end-to-end services across different management domains. However, the coordinated and optimal instantiation and operation of multiple closed loops is an open question that is left for implementation by the ZSM specifications. In this paper, we propose a methodology that uses intents as a way of communicating requirements to be considered by autonomous management domains to coordinate hierarchies of closed loops. The intent-driven methodology facilitates hierarchical and peer interactions for delegation and escalation of intents. Furthermore, it extends the existing management capabilities of the ZSM framework and facilitates conflict-free integration of closed loops by setting optimal (and non-conflicting) goals that each closed loop in the hierarchy needs to account for. We show an example of the application of the proposed methodology in a network slicing assurance use case. The new capabilities introduced in this paper can be considered as an extension of the ZSM framework to be used in scenarios where multiple intent-driven closed loops exist.

As cooperative information systems (CIS) grow to cover large-scaled CIS that involves many cooperative sub-systems distributed geographically, management technologies that support them gain in importance. This paper focuses on the underlying technologies that are key to the success of cooperative information system, i.e., service management and network management, which are in the form of middleware, to assure inter-domain cooperation within a big CIS in a flexible, automated and secure way. This flexibility and automation is guaranteed by the use of Policy-based Network Management integrated with Mobile Agent Technology. Extending the mobile agent supporting environment, Grasshopper, to support more secure facilities, largely enhances the security. As a case study, IP Virtual Private Network tunnel between two geographically separated domains within a large-scaled CIS is set up and configured automatically and securely using the service and network management middleware, which shows that service and network management enhanced CIS can operate with more flexibility, automation, security and in a larger information system.KeywordsMobile AgentNetwork ManagementInternet Engineer Task ForcePolicy Decision PointSecure Socket LayerThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

There are many driving forces which have compelled telecommunication operators and vendors to seek new solutions in telecommunications management. Increased competition has led to an increased focus on how traditional operators can do their business better through the use of integrated service and network management systems. Moreover, there is a need to integrate legacy applications and new applications, all of which could be written in different languages, perhaps running on different platforms, and almost certainly distributed over a network. CORBA has been recognised as a key technology solution. Based on the case studies performed for the ACTS project PROSPECT, this paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of TMN (Telecommunications Management Network) and CORBA regarding network and service management, and proposes a phased approach for TMN-CORBA co-existence in the telecommunications management arena based on the Management Systems Framework of the Network Management Forum. Moreover, it presents some initial ideas concerning required basic management functionality that serve as a background for the CORBA/TMN gateway functionality to be implemented within the PROSPECT trial network.

As SDN technology is becoming popular in the field of computer networks management, the need for evolvable SDN-based network management systems arises. SDN facilitates introducing abstractions to the network through programmability and control separation. In this paper, we propose an abstraction in the SDN management layer through adopting a concept of separation of network concerns. We present a management framework, termed NWManager, that provides an abstraction to the network administrator through policies based on network management functions, like behaviour analysis and monitoring, quality of service preservation and security. And based on network concerns as follows, application, communication, resources concern and common concern representing the area of intersection between basic concerns. NWManager provides various network management functions in one system. Our conducted network simulation scenario by mininet demonstrates that this abstraction and separation of concerns in management layer facilitates and enhances the management of the network. As well, it extends the network control parameters provided to the network administrator.

A variety of Web-based applications, mobile apps, and other over the top data services with affordable 3G/4G enabled smart devices are major factors for enormous increase in heterogeneous data traffic at enterprise and mobile networks. This creates challenges regarding traffic management and requires traffic-aware intelligent network management to deliver sustained quality of experience for subscribers. Deep packet inspection and analysis (DPIA) provides base platform for development of traffic-aware intelligent network management and security systems. However, computationally complex DPIA-related packet processing for high speed data traffic makes these systems expensive. Furthermore, conventionally these traffic-aware network management and security systems are deployed in enterprise networks with independent and dedicated DPIA-related processing resources and require multiple copies of passively provisioned high speed data from network, while performing similar DPIA operations over the same data again and again. This duplicate deployment of expensive software and hardware resources for DPIA processing eventually results in higher capital expenditures as well as operational expenditures for network operators. We have proposed a novel service-oriented framework for heterogeneous deep packet inspection and analysis (SoDPI) that simultaneously provides diversified DPIA services to multiple client applications for network management and security operations in high-speed networks. Proposed framework provides flexible and comprehensive API-based service interface for client applications to register required DPIA services. SoDPI framework implementation is based on commodity hardware and deploys shared set of DPIA-related packet processing components, requiring only single copy of passive data provisioned from network. Experimental evaluations show that novel SoDPI framework requires considerably reduced amount of software and hardware resources to fulfill heterogeneous DPIA packet processing requirements for multiple client applications in comparison with conventional network management and security applications with dedicated DPIA components. This results in lower cost impacts for network operators with more network manageability.

The deregulation of the global telecommunication industry has seen a change in the business and operational environment in which services are deployed and managed. The requirements have intensified to provide a management framework for telecommunication networks and services across multiple technology domains and using multiple management technologies. This paper describes an integrated TMN service management architecture that provides an environment for different service management functions and different management domains to be integrated. To further substantiate this architecture, a system was built to demonstrate the integration concepts. The research and development work reported in this paper focuses on the following two aspects of integration: first the integration between TMN network and service management functions; and next the integration between different service management functions. A proof of concept system was developed to demonstrate such integration. It consists of the following components: Generic service ordering and provisioning; connection management based on a generic network model concept; and service management based upon service level agreement management and customer service management concepts. This paper reports this work and the experiences gained from this research.

A network management system can be divided into the management function and management intelligence logically according to the coordination concept. We represent a cooperative network management (CNM) framework using a reactive intelligent agent. The agent includes two types of objects. The event manager agent communication object (ACO) and business object repository compose the management function. Management intelligence is embodied in an engine which analyzes the received events from the event manager and messages from the ACO, then decide to invoke the business object's method based on action rules. The CNM framework is comprised of a management console, cooperative intelligent agents and access adapters. Using this framework, the administrator can decompose the management task into several subtasks and delegate these subtasks to cooperative intelligent agents. The management framework enables the administrator to modify the intelligent agent's subtask without interrupting the system's running.

In this work, we investigate an online service management problem in vehicular edge computing networks. To satisfy the varying service demands of mobile vehicles, a service management framework is required to make decisions on the service lifecycle to maintain good network performance. We describe the service lifecycle consists of creating an instance of a given service (scale-out), moving an instance to a different edge node (migration), and/or termination of an underutilized instance (scale-in). In this paper, we propose an efficient online algorithm to perform service management in each time slot, where performance quality in the current time slot, the service demand in future time slots, and the minimal observed delay by vehicles and the minimal migration delay are considered while making the decisions on service lifecycle. Here, the future service demand is computed from a gated recurrent unit (GRU)based prediction model, and the network performance quality is estimated using a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) model which has the ability to interact with the vehicular environment in real-time. The choice of optimal edge location to deploy a service instance at different times is based on our proposed optimization formulations. Simulation experiments using real-world vehicle trajectories are carried out to evaluate the performance of our proposed demand-prediction based online service management (DOSM) framework against different state-of-the-art solutions using several performance metrics.

A typical management application in today's enterprise network involves remote cooperation of a number of skilled people within and across organisations. Hence there is a need to consider the role of human resources and their interactions in a network operation and management process. However, most of the present day management solutions concentrate on the management of network equipment/devices. In view of the critical nature of many networked applications, it is important to provide effective and reliable management from the perspective of an enterprise. This paper reports our study of human cooperation in a network management environment in a large telecom organisation. This resulted in our proposed cooperative management framework for enterprise networks, which is presented.

The electric power transmission network management is changing from decentralized to province-centralized mode to adapt to the development trend of power grid. For the current hierarchical management situation of transmission system, the paper mainly studies the centralized mode. Considering the difficulty of transform, security, the demand of bandwidth and augmentability factors, the paper proposes a hierarchical province-centralized mode based on Resource pool and states its architecture, realization methods and deployment mode of Network Manager System in Cloud, realizing the unified management, configuration and data sharing of the whole province. Deploying the network management system in the Clout is taking full use of the resource sharing, efficient management and on-demand resource of the Cloud to realize the intensification, promoting the scheduling intensive management level of Information and transmission. Introduction For a long time, the layered, graded, zoned management mode of electric power communication networks makes the network management system built and maintained by the way of multi-level scheduling mechanism. In order to fulfill the development trend of power grid, power transmission network management should be developed from the provinces and cities separated pattern to the province-centralized mode to realize unified management, unified configuration and sharing of the communication network data within province and achieve the purpose of concentrate and highly active management, reasonable resource-configuration and optimizing the structure of the network resources. Deploying the communication network management centrally is an effective way to enhance the level of intensive management, which, whereas, will cause the load that systems deal with increase sharply. However, Cloud computing technology integrates resources into form Cloud in order to get higher utilization of computing and storage, having a strong computing power and storage capacity. With the development of Cloud construction, deploying communication network management in the pool can improve data reliability and security. This paper puts forward a hierarchical province-centralized mode based on Cloud by researching on concentrated-model of Transmission Network Management, and describes the model in detail. Discussed Problems Power system communication network is the important technology support and infrastructure platform of the grid. As an important guarantee of power grid security, stability and economic running, communication network management system is the important technology means of the communication network management and maintenance. International Power, Electronics and Materials Engineering Conference (IPEMEC 2015) © 2015. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 596 Communication network management system At present, the general transmission network management system is divided into Element Management System(EMS), Subnet Management System(SNMS) and Network Management (NMS) in terms of the management level. EMS is based on the device manager and realizes the management of safety, configuration, performance and alarm for specific equipment; SNMS can divide the network elements into various subnets, not only manage the elements equipments but also the topological relation between them. NMS is a higher level than the SNMS and manage multiple SNMS systems at the same time through network. It configures the router for each business level, and also shows the network elements’ circumstances of each time slot and the business relationships at all levels in details. The relationship of different level network management system is showed as the figure 1.

Network and service management encompasses a set of activities, methods, procedures, and tools, whose ultimate goal is to guarantee the proper functioning of a networked system. Computational tools are essential to help network administrators in their daily tasks, and information visualization techniques are of great value in such context. In essence, information visualization techniques associated to visual analytics aim at facilitating the tasks of network administrators in the process of monitoring and maintaining the network health. This paper surveys the use of information visualization techniques as a tool to support the network and service management process. Through a systematic literature review (SLR), we provide a historical overview and discuss the current state of the art in the field. We present a classification of 285 articles and papers from 1985 to 2013, according to an information visualization taxonomy, as well as a network and service management taxonomy. Finally, we point out future research directions and opportunities regarding the use of information visualization in network and service management.

This paper proposes Web Service based network management. The Web Service based network management system is analyzed. It consists of network management layer, collaborative management implementation layer, and management function layer mainly. The complex management network tasks can be accomplished respectively by more than one Web Service distributed on Internet and the Web Services interchange information based on XML message. The SNMP/XML gateway and the translation between GDMO/ASN.1 and XML/Schema are designed and implemented to implement the integration between the legacy network management systems and the network management developed by Web Service technologies. The service management in Web Service based network management is discussed. Service composition/re-composition in Web Service based network management is analyzed based on the QoS requirements negotiation between the network management requirements and the statement of Web Service and network, OWL-S being used to described the network management requirements to discover the suitable Web Service, BPEL being used to describe the Web Service composition.

Beyond 5G networks will be fundamental towards enabling sustainable mobile communication networks. One of the most challenging scenarios will be met in ultra-dense networks that are deployed in densely populated areas. In this particular case, mobile network operators should benefit from new assessment metrics and data science tools to ensure an effective management of their networks. In fact, incorporating architectures allowing a cognitive network management framework could simplify processes and enhance the network’s performance. In this paper, we propose the use of composite indicators based on key performance indicators both as a tool for a cognitive management of mobile communications networks, as well as a metric which could successfully integrate more advanced user-centric measurements. Composite indicators can successfully synthesize and integrate large amounts of data, incorporating in a single index different metrics selected as triggers for autonomous decisions. The paper motivates and describes the use of this methodology, which is applied successfully in other areas with the aim of ranking metrics to simplify complex realities. A use case that is based on a universal mobile telecommunications system network is analyzed, due to technology simplicity and scalability, as well as the availability of key performance indicators. The use case focuses on analyzing the fairness of a network over different coverage areas as a fundamental metric in the operation and management of the networks. To this end, several ranking and visualization strategies are presented, providing examples of how to extract insights from the proposed composite indicator.

Increasingly, innovation na longer takes place within individual firms, but within networks of organizations. An important requirement tor such network-based innovations to come to fruition is that knowledge flows across organizational boundaries. Yet, it is not self-evident or easy to create and sustain knowledge flows within and across companies. This chapter present a framework for studying knowledge management in alliance network. This ramework is used in subsequent chapters to analyse five case studies of knowledge sharing and innovation in networks. This chapter starts with a brief review of existing literature on alliance network and knowledge management, Ieading to a conceptual model for studying knowledge management in networks. his conceptual model incorporates knowledgesharing problem solution to those problems, and the contingent effects of network and knowledge type. The chapter conclude with a short introduction to the five case studies.